Cargando…
Cooperation and competition shape ecological resistance during periodic spatial disturbance of engineered bacteria
Cooperation is fundamental to the survival of many bacterial species. Previous studies have shown that spatial structure can both promote and suppress cooperation. Most environments where bacteria are found are periodically disturbed, which can affect the spatial structure of the population. Despite...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2017
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5428654/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28348396 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-00588-9 |
_version_ | 1783235869883236352 |
---|---|
author | Wilson, Cortney E. Lopatkin, Allison J. Craddock, Travis J. A. Driscoll, William W. Eldakar, Omar Tonsi Lopez, Jose V. Smith, Robert P. |
author_facet | Wilson, Cortney E. Lopatkin, Allison J. Craddock, Travis J. A. Driscoll, William W. Eldakar, Omar Tonsi Lopez, Jose V. Smith, Robert P. |
author_sort | Wilson, Cortney E. |
collection | PubMed |
description | Cooperation is fundamental to the survival of many bacterial species. Previous studies have shown that spatial structure can both promote and suppress cooperation. Most environments where bacteria are found are periodically disturbed, which can affect the spatial structure of the population. Despite the important role that spatial disturbances play in maintaining ecological relationships, it remains unclear as to how periodic spatial disturbances affect bacteria dependent on cooperation for survival. Here, we use bacteria engineered with a strong Allee effect to investigate how the frequency of periodic spatial disturbances affects cooperation. We show that at intermediate frequencies of spatial disturbance, the ability of the bacterial population to cooperate is perturbed. A mathematical model demonstrates that periodic spatial disturbance leads to a tradeoff between accessing an autoinducer and accessing nutrients, which determines the ability of the bacteria to cooperate. Based on this relationship, we alter the ability of the bacteria to access an autoinducer. We show that increased access to an autoinducer can enhance cooperation, but can also reduce ecological resistance, defined as the ability of a population to resist changes due to disturbance. Our results may have implications in maintaining stability of microbial communities and in the treatment of infectious diseases. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5428654 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-54286542017-05-15 Cooperation and competition shape ecological resistance during periodic spatial disturbance of engineered bacteria Wilson, Cortney E. Lopatkin, Allison J. Craddock, Travis J. A. Driscoll, William W. Eldakar, Omar Tonsi Lopez, Jose V. Smith, Robert P. Sci Rep Article Cooperation is fundamental to the survival of many bacterial species. Previous studies have shown that spatial structure can both promote and suppress cooperation. Most environments where bacteria are found are periodically disturbed, which can affect the spatial structure of the population. Despite the important role that spatial disturbances play in maintaining ecological relationships, it remains unclear as to how periodic spatial disturbances affect bacteria dependent on cooperation for survival. Here, we use bacteria engineered with a strong Allee effect to investigate how the frequency of periodic spatial disturbances affects cooperation. We show that at intermediate frequencies of spatial disturbance, the ability of the bacterial population to cooperate is perturbed. A mathematical model demonstrates that periodic spatial disturbance leads to a tradeoff between accessing an autoinducer and accessing nutrients, which determines the ability of the bacteria to cooperate. Based on this relationship, we alter the ability of the bacteria to access an autoinducer. We show that increased access to an autoinducer can enhance cooperation, but can also reduce ecological resistance, defined as the ability of a population to resist changes due to disturbance. Our results may have implications in maintaining stability of microbial communities and in the treatment of infectious diseases. Nature Publishing Group UK 2017-03-27 /pmc/articles/PMC5428654/ /pubmed/28348396 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-00588-9 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Wilson, Cortney E. Lopatkin, Allison J. Craddock, Travis J. A. Driscoll, William W. Eldakar, Omar Tonsi Lopez, Jose V. Smith, Robert P. Cooperation and competition shape ecological resistance during periodic spatial disturbance of engineered bacteria |
title | Cooperation and competition shape ecological resistance during periodic spatial disturbance of engineered bacteria |
title_full | Cooperation and competition shape ecological resistance during periodic spatial disturbance of engineered bacteria |
title_fullStr | Cooperation and competition shape ecological resistance during periodic spatial disturbance of engineered bacteria |
title_full_unstemmed | Cooperation and competition shape ecological resistance during periodic spatial disturbance of engineered bacteria |
title_short | Cooperation and competition shape ecological resistance during periodic spatial disturbance of engineered bacteria |
title_sort | cooperation and competition shape ecological resistance during periodic spatial disturbance of engineered bacteria |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5428654/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28348396 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-00588-9 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT wilsoncortneye cooperationandcompetitionshapeecologicalresistanceduringperiodicspatialdisturbanceofengineeredbacteria AT lopatkinallisonj cooperationandcompetitionshapeecologicalresistanceduringperiodicspatialdisturbanceofengineeredbacteria AT craddocktravisja cooperationandcompetitionshapeecologicalresistanceduringperiodicspatialdisturbanceofengineeredbacteria AT driscollwilliamw cooperationandcompetitionshapeecologicalresistanceduringperiodicspatialdisturbanceofengineeredbacteria AT eldakaromartonsi cooperationandcompetitionshapeecologicalresistanceduringperiodicspatialdisturbanceofengineeredbacteria AT lopezjosev cooperationandcompetitionshapeecologicalresistanceduringperiodicspatialdisturbanceofengineeredbacteria AT smithrobertp cooperationandcompetitionshapeecologicalresistanceduringperiodicspatialdisturbanceofengineeredbacteria |